Philosophical Entrees : Classic and Contemporary Readings in Philosophy

by Jacquette, Dale

• ISBN13: 9780073659336
• ISBN10: 0073659339
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-06-16
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

The essays in this volume, selections from important classical and contemporary philosophical writings, are organized into six central topics in philosophy, the meaning of life, epistemology or theory of knowledge, the concept of mind and problem of free will and determinism, the existence and nature of God, ethical theory and moral decision making, and metaphilosophy or the philosophy of philosophy.Entrées can be used as a stand-alone collection or as supplementary readings to accompany Jacquette's introductory text, Six Philosophical Appetizers, also published by McGraw-Hill. The Appetizers and Entrées complement one another. The six sections of readings in the Entrées correspond to the six philosophical topics of the Appetizers.The readings chosen are entrées in both senses of the word. They are main courses, philosophical food for thought, for which the appetizers in the companion text are table starters. They are also points of entry into the vast philosophical literature surrounding each of the six topics. By investigating the topics presented in these Entrées, it is possible to get a clear view of the issues that divide philosophers, and the variety of philosophical methods that have characterized philosophy's remarkable history.

Table of Contents

PART ONE: The Meaning of Life

Plato, Apology (excerpt)

William James, “Is Life Worth Living?”

Albert Camus, “An Absurd Reasoning” (excerpt)

Thomas Nagel, “The Absurd”

Richard Taylor, “The Meaning of Life”

John Wisdom, “The Meanings of the Questions of Life”

Irving Singer, “The Meaning of Life: Rephrasing Questions”

Joseph Ellin, “The Meaning of Life”

PART TWO: Epistemology, Knowledge, and Skepticism

Plato, Meno (excerpt)

Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, "Meditation I"

G.E. Moore, “A Defense of Common Sense”

Edmund L. Gettier, “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?”

Richard L. Kirkham, "Does the Gettier Problem Rest on a Mistake?"

Roderick M. Chisholm, The Problem of the Criterion (excerpt)

Keith Lehrer, Skepticism (excerpt)

Alvin I. Goldman, "A Causal Theory of Knowing"

Ernest Sosa, "The Raft and the Pyramid: Coherence versus Foundations in the Theory of Knowledge"

William P. Alston, "Two Types of Foundationalism"

PART THREE: Philosophy of Mind, Freedom and Determinism

Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, "Meditations II, VI" (excerpt)

Franz Brentano, “The Distinction Between Mental and Physical Phenomena” (excerpt)

U.T. Place, “Is Consciousness a Brain Process?”

Frank C. Jackson, “Epiphenomenal Qualia”

Alan M. Turing, "Computing Machinery and Intelligence"

John Searle, "Can Computers Think?" (excerpt)

Daniel C. Dennett, "Can Machines Think?" (excerpt)

Arthur Schopenhauer, Essay on Freedom of the Will (excerpt)

Gilbert Ryle, “The Will” (excerpt)

Stuart Hampshire and H.L.A. Hart, "Decision, Intention and Certainty"

Roderick M. Chisholm, “Freedom and Action: (excerpt)

PART FOUR: Existence and Nature of God

Anselm of Canterbury, Proslogion (excerpt)

Immanuel Kant, “The Ideal of Pure Reason” (excerpt)

Alvin Plantinga, "Kant's Objection to the Ontological Argument"

Norman Malcolm, "Anselm's Ontological Arguments"

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (excerpt)

William Paley, Natural Theology (excerpt)

David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (excerpt)

Richard G. Swinburne, "The Argument from Design"

Blaise Pascal, Pensees (excerpt)

Francois-Marie Arouet de Voltaire, Tout est Bien - All is Good

H.J. McCloskey, "God and Evil"

Terence Penelhum, “Divine Goodness and the Problem of Evil”

Michael Bakunin, God and the State (excerpt)

Bertrand Russell, "Why I Am Not a Christian" (excerpt)

Bertrand Russell, "Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to Civilization?" (excerpt)

PART FIVE: Ethics, Virtue and Morality

Plato, The Republic (excerpt)

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (excerpt)

Immanuel Kant, The Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Ethics (excerpt)

Jeremy Bentham, "An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation" (excerpt)

John Stuart Mill, "Utilitarianism" (excerpt)

Friedrich Nietzsche, “Good and Evil, Good and Bad”

Charles Leslie Stevenson, "The Emotive Meaning of Ethical Terms"

Lawrence M. Hinman, “The Role of Relativism in the Moral Life”

F.H. Bradley, “Why Should I Be Moral?”

A.I. Melden, “Why Be Moral?”

PART SIX: Metaphilosophy, the Philosophy of Philosophy

Samuel M. Thompson, "What is Philosophy?"

R.W. Newell, "Philosophical Method"

J.J.C. Smart, “The Province of Philosophy"

Bertrand Russell, “The Value of Philosophy”

Ludwig Wittgenstein, "Philosophy"

A.J. Ayer, “The Elimination of Metaphysics and The Function of Philosophy”

R.G. Collingwood, "The Reform of Metaphysics"

Richard Rorty, "Philosophy Without Mirrors" (excerpt)

Nicholas Rescher, "The Mission of Philosophy"